


Post-Op

by Duck_Life



Category: X-Factor (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Crying, F/M, Loss, Surgery, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 13:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15708288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Warren wakes up after his wings are removed. (Missing scene from X-Factor #15)





	Post-Op

Jean wakes up when she hears the shift in Warren’s breathing. They’ve been holed up in Warren’s hospital room for hours, her and Bobby, ever since Warren got out of surgery. She doesn’t remember falling asleep, but she must have drifted off some time after Bobby stretched out on the sofa by the wall. Outside, the sky is gray. 

Jean watches Warren sit up, looking disoriented, and she’s about to speak and let him know she’s there when he screams. “No! My wings!” He sounds so broken that it splinters her heart. She leaps up, tries to get to him as fast as she can as Bobby jumps up and looks around, startled by Warren’s cry. “Where are my wings?” he demands, like a lost little kid. 

“They’d gangrened, Warren,” she says, thinking back on everything the doctors kept telling them. “You were dying. The doctors got a court order… There was nothing we could do.” Though they’d tried like hell. She’d tried to get the doctors to change his power of attorney to her and Bobby, tried to explain to them what Warren wanted. They wouldn’t listen. “I’m just glad you’re alive,” she says, because it’s the truth. She tries to hug him but he jerks away.

“You call this alive?” he says, furious and devastated. “Jean… you let them destroy me.” And of course he blames her, the same way Scott blames her for Phoenix and Maddie… she’s about to defend herself, remind him that it was  _ his _ asshole friend Hodge who started all this—  but that’s when Warren looks over and notices Bobby. “I…” He puts his hands over his mouth, composing himself, and then he sits back down on the edge of his bed. “They cut them off,” he says mournfully. 

“Yeah, buddy,” Bobby says, coming forward and putting on hand on Warren’s arm. “It… it was either your wings or your life.” Warren looks up at him, eyes wide and hollow. “Courts declared you incompetent, apparently.” Warren nods, his fingers digging into the material of the cot beneath him. 

Jean glances between the two of them. “Bobby, could you go get Warren some ice water?” 

He shrugs, holding up one hand. “Sure, I can just—”

“N-no, coffee,” she corrects herself. “Can you go get him some coffee? He’s bound to be exhausted after the surgery.”

Bobby shrugs again and nods. “Yeah, of course. Be right back.” 

Warren watches the door swing shut behind Bobby, and then he turns back to Jean. His eyes are just as achingly hollow but now his jaw is working back and forth as he grinds his teeth in distress. “Oh, god,” he says, coughing out a terrible sob. 

Because Bobby’s always been the baby of the group, and no matter how old they get that’s always going to be true. They’ll always try to protect him. It was like an unspoken rule— don’t let Bobby know you're hurting. Don’t let Bobby know anything could knock you down so bad you couldn’t get back up. 

And she knows that Warren can’t afford to be strong for anyone else right now. 

“Oh, god,” he says again, all his anger melting away. She holds out her arms and he crashlands against her, his face buried in her hair, crying in earnest now. He shakes and shakes in her arms and she clings tightly, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. 

“I know,” she says, but she’s not sure she does. Losing her telepathy had hurt, but she’d still been Jean. Marvel Girl was still Marvel Girl even if she couldn’t read minds. What was Angel if he couldn’t fly? “I’m so sorry, Warr.”

“They’re gone,” he says, his breath hitching as he falls apart. “They’re gone, oh, god, oh, god, they’re really gone.” 

Tentatively, she smooths her hand over his curls, trying not to think of broken birds and fallen angels. She thinks of the boy who used to scoop her up and soar into the air, whooping with joy. 

This bandaged, broken Warren leans back from her now and looks at her, leans his forehead against hers. “It feels so  _ wrong _ ,” he says as she tangles her fingers with his. “My back… It’s… I could never get used to this. God, Jeannie, what the hell do I do now?” 

She tries, unsuccessfully, not to cry, and goddammit, she’s supposed to be the one who has everything together. When Scott’s breaking down because of Maddie and Bobby’s being neurotic and Hank’s too consumed by his latest science project and Warren’s running off to the sewers to get his wings destroyed by Marauders,  _ she’s _ supposed to be the one who stays calm. 

“It’s going to be okay,” she lies, bringing a hand up to brush his hair out of his face. “We… we’ll figure this out. It’s going to be okay.”

“ _ No _ !” he shouts, startling her. “Don’t you get it? Jesus, Jeannie,  _ nothing _ is okay about this! I can’t live like this.”

“Warren—”

“ _ I can’t live like this _ ,” he says, his shoulders shaking.

And then Bobby walks back in carrying a cup of coffee. “Here,” he says, holding it out, oblivious. 

Warren slaps on a fake smile and takes the coffee. “Thanks, Bobby,” he says, taking the cup. “Really, both you guys, thank you for staying with me. It means a lot.” 

Jean stares at him. She’s seen him put on shows like this before, but he’s really overdoing it now. Even Bobby doesn’t look convinced. “Dude—”

“ _ Thank you, Bobby _ ,” Warren says. Little ripples form in his coffee as his hand starts to shake. “I… I should probably get some more rest. Why don’t you guys head home?”

Jean shakes her head. “We’re not leaving.”

Warren opens his mouth, closes it. He says nothing. 

He stares down at the little ripples in his coffee cup. 


End file.
